


Box It Up: Slap on a Smile

by CookieCatSU



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Healing, I refuse to use the nickname Volleyball, Moving On, Pearl is there to help, Physically and mentally, Pink Pearl is scarred for life, She is in denial, She's slowly adjusting to being a person again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25813654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieCatSU/pseuds/CookieCatSU
Summary: The splintering cracks deepened, and she was fine.The awful screeching intensified, but she was fine.She didn't mean to, and besides, she was fine. Pink Pearl is fine.
Relationships: Pearl/Pink Diamond's Pearl (Steven Universe)
Kudos: 27





	Box It Up: Slap on a Smile

It was easy to smile. It was easy to come up with excuses. It was easy to push it far, far down, until it was so far it was unreachable, to box, lid and package it up, and tie a neat little bow around the top.

It was easy to ignore because it was over and done with, and it was an accident, and she was fine.

The splintering cracks deepened, and she was fine.

The awful screeching intensified, but she was fine.

 _She didn't mean to,_ and besides, she was fine.

It'd been so long, since she'd been able to, and let herself, frown. She hadn't really realized it, but the same smile which remained plastered on her face while under White's influence, had lingered long after she'd been released from her bondage. It'd become muscle memory, reflex.

(Her face hurt; the muscles taut, raw, from so long), she rubs her hand against her cheeks, in hopes of relieving some of the stiffness.

She'd been pretending for such a long time.

It'd been _so_ easy to pretend. Admitting was harder. And now that she's done so, the flood gates were open, and she felt exposed in a way she hasn't in 8000 years.

Tears are streaming down her face, hot, wet against her palms. It'd been so long… the images, the awful, screeching, ringing noises, are coming back in full force, ripping and painful, tinted in pale pink.

Yet, there's a weight, which she had not realized was there, lifted from her shoulder. She felt lighter, freer, in a way, despite that she was crying… no, especially now that she was crying.

The gem beside her is solid, sturdy, and she allows her to lean against her shoulder. Understands, despite everything. 

"Thank you" She murmurs, into the soft fabric of her jacket, solemn, and quiet. 

The other pearl hums, squeezing the hand held in hers just a little tighter. Her pale eyebrows knit together.

"Whatever for?" 

Pink Pearl leans further into her side, soaking up her reassuring presence. There was something so warm, crisp and cool and _steadying_ , about the other Pearl. She was certain it was the way she understood so deeply, so completely; everything Pink Pearl was and everything she'd been through. She was a pearl, just like she was, and she'd been _hers_ , just like she was, and she understood what it was _like_ to _love_ her, just as she did. 

No one else understood.

Her hand wraps around the younger Pearl's bicep, and her voice sounds clear as the night sky overlooking the water's edge,

"...For reminding me of something I'd forgotten" 

That it was _okay_ to be hurt. That it was okay to have scars... and that working through pain took time.

She'd lost sight of that. Of the messy, ugly realities of life, after too long spent grayed out by perfection.

 _"How'd_ **_you_ ** _stop hurting?"_

_"I didn't"_

And though her eyes widened, it was stated so simply, so matter of factly, it's clearly just a simple reality. 

It's the truth.  
  



End file.
